Delta variant of COVID-19 prolonging pandemic and getting worse

Gus Pearcy, The Lebanon Reporter, Ind.
·2 min read

Sep. 21—Boone County is continuing to see the number of COVID-19 cases rise.

Gene Davis, infection control director at Witham Health Services, said the hospital has had to expand its COVID-19 ward to handle the increase in patients.

"We now have a 16-bed ward here," Davis said, adding that there have been as many as 15 of the beds filled with COVID patients. "It's probably worse this time than it's been through any of the COVID."

Davis explained that a year ago COVID beds were filled with patients, half of which exhibited COVID symptoms but the tests would come back negative. Today, patients are testing positive before they get a COVID bed.

The Indiana State Department of Health has not changed the weekly color status of Boone County in terms of COVID positivity rates. The county remains at the orange level, indicating a positivity rate of nearly 8%. Hamilton and Clinton counties are also orange with a positivity rate of 9.5% and 6.5% respectively. Montgomery County has a higher positivity rate of 11.33% and Hendricks County is a red county with a positivity rate of 15.5%.

"We are seeing through our emergency room and through our testing center ... there is a large amount of COVID circulating in our community right now," Davis said. "People really need to get vaccinated. I know people are saying some people are still getting COVID even if they're vaccinated. That is true, but the hospitalized people we are seeing — and I mean the majority, I'm talking a very high percentage of these people — are unvaccinated."

Witham Hospital is seeing more patients which is putting a strain on their resources. Davis said if it gets worse, the hospital has prepared the ambulance bay for 10 more COVID beds.

"The more we get these people vaccinated, the better it's going to be for us to be able to control the variants," Davis said. "This is just going to continue to evolve, but we can slow it down."

Davis also said people need to be social distancing and wearing masks in large public groups.